During the last decades, the introduction of Building Information Models (BIM) has opened new possibilities to ensure better communication and a shared understanding between stakeholders in construction projects. Similar benefits have been found in 4D simulations of the schedule. While BIM and 4D use has seen a steady increase, the potential benefits have not fully been realised, primarily due to tools not supporting and enabling the full potential of collaborative stakeholder involvement in scheduling. The benefits of 4D simulations come from improving communication between stakeholders. While traditional 4D modelling connects an existing BIM model with an existing schedule, a move from this type of passive 4D visualisation toward social co-creation enables all stakeholders to be involved in the scheduling process. This connection is further enhanced with the use of Virtual Reality (VR). Recent research has shown VR to enhance understanding and perception of the space and details and, thus, a better understanding of the project. This paper maps collaborative planning and scheduling method and traditional 4D scheduling using process modelling. This mapping is followed by implementing the 4D collaborative planning and scheduling method in the virtual project planning system with support for a multi-user interactive VR environment. The system enables social co-creation both during the planning and scheduling and during 4D modelling; it improves understanding of the project and the planning and scheduling.

Construction projects often suffer from backlashes in relation to poor plans and schedules. Especially pre-construction planning has been challenging due to a high complexity, an extensive amount of information, and a lack of site managers time to make the schedule. To solve these issues for pre-construction planning; new planning processes, methods and tools have been developed over the last decade. However, due to a disregard of the current planning processes these tools have been difficult to adopt in practice. In addition, these developed tools and methods are seldom developed from the user’s point of view. A promising development is the introduction of integrated planning as a concept in construction companies. It involves the use of BIM models in concert with a planning approach where the subcontractors engage in the planning. However, currently available tools are more geared towards experienced users such as expert planners and does not allow for a fully collaborative and integrated planning approach. While many current tools would tick many of the requirements identified, they still fail to address the base requirements from the collaborative work environment literature. This paper contributes with a user-centric design and development of a collaborative planning application showing the integration of the existing collaborative planning process. By adopting a socio-technical approach, the paper focuses on combining technology and processes supporting the users and their way of working in order to enable adoption of the solution. A design science research approach has been used to gather requirements and develop and evaluate the Visual Project Planner (VPP) application. The VPP application applies a collaborative, visual approach supporting interdisciplinary knowledge sharing between all parties involved where the subcontractors actively can contribute to schedule. The VPP application has potential to reduce time for pre-construction planning regardless of the planning approach used.

No abstract

No abstract

Lending inspiration from the manufacturing industry, industrialized house-builders have adopted some of its characteristics such as high standardization of configurable products and manufacturing processes. Standardization of product and information flow within industrialized housebuilding has shown to beneficially increase offsite manufacturing efficiency. They have however not been able to transfer the increase in efficiency to onsite construction, leading to it being one of the key issues resulting in delays. For offsite manufacturing, previous research has suggested Bill of Material (BOM) as a structure to define information for in manufacturing phases. However, due to the variation in workflow between offsite manufacturing and onsite construction, the structure of a BOM for offsite manufacturing cannot be reused in onsite construction, ultimately resulting in increased data redundancy and recreation.A conceptual model of a BOM for onsite construction has been developed inspired by Bill of Materials (BOM), Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Location Breakdown Structure (LBS), Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and Work Instructions (WI). The conceptual model utilizes space structure LBS to link spaces with SOPs. Furthermore, it also utilizes WBS to link SOPs with WIs. The BOM for onsite construction is generated by a transformation from offsite manufacturing P-BOM. Streamlining the information flow and transformation between manufacturing and construction phases open the possibility to develop IT-solutions for industrialized house-builders. By developing existing IT-systems to reduce data redundancy, the fragmentation between offsite manufacturing and construction sites could be utilized by reusing existing data. The conceptual model supports multiple information views and allows for information filtering determined by the performed work and project.

No abstract